IMO every Neflix Marvel series has improved over the last until now with JJ being better than DD season 1, but not quite up to the bar set by the second season. I don't think Luke Cage S1 is near the bar set by the second reason of Daredevil but then that had the benefit of starting off with an established roster of characters and having to deal with too much origin baggage (the only flashback stuff was mostly entirely plot relevant in terms of Stick and Electra).

Well I really enjoyed Luke Cage, but as with Crimson it's my least favourite.

I think for me there just wasn't any villain as interesting or well portrayed as either Fisk or Kilgrave. Cottonmouth was really good but obviously gets killed off. Then Diamondback just never really stepped up to fill that gap.

Still I thought it was excellent and it's good to have a hero that's "out" in terms of public awareness of them in the universe.

It seemed to be far more obvious in it's links to the other Netflix stuff and the wider MCU as well. DD and JJ would only have one or two lines per season that would reference "the incident" or the Avengers. This was brimming over with them. Directly name dropping Tony Stark, Captain America. Several references to Mjolnir (People in Harlem are obsessed with that hammer it seems). Hammer Industries making the weapons Diamondback sells. Claire picking off a notice for "Martial Arts Training" in the final montage. References to Fisk and Jessica as well. There's probably more as well. But it never seemed to be in a fan-service way. Loved it.